• Awesome!

  

  As reviewed by Jared Frantz on 1/26/2011

  I bought this halfstack at my local guitar store. It sounds awesome clean, and dirty. If you want something that sounds great with any guitar buy this. The effects don't sound cheap like a line 6 amp. Plus it is loud. My buddies can't tell if it is tube or not, which is a great thing. The sound fills the bar just fine. Buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

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• Great sound.....but may not be reliable

  

  As reviewed by JMTeleplayer on 5/12/2011

  First off, I have to say I have always liked Crate amps. I like the tone, features, and (traditional) dependability that Crate offers. I received this half-stack as a gift from my family three weeks ago, purchased at the local music store, as a replacement for my Crate Flexwave 65W that has some real problems. There's good and bad with this setup. First of all, it looks just plain slick. The pictures actually don't do it justice with regards to appearance and pure "rock your socks off" looks. The equipment is reasonably light and the cab can be carried by one (relatively) strong person fairly easily. The physical build quality seems good, the tolex is nice, and the controls are very logical and easy to use. If you like Crate tones, this is good. The clean channel is the best sounding channel on this amp and if you adjust the reverb and chorus settings, plus the tone pots on your guitar, you can get some really pleasing sounds in a wide range. The overdrive channel is okay, not great. It doesn't have that classic Marshall tone that most people want, but if you want that sound.......buy a Marshall. The overdrive is good for 70's style guitar rock and a lot of 80's hair stuff or southern rock. Working with the controls in overdrive doesn't give you the wide array of sounds you get with the clean channel. The third channel is high gain, and it's just miserable. Very noisy, very muddy, and not good for much except annoying people. This amp will not give you the variety of tones that you will get with something like a Line 6 solid state modeling head, but if you like Crate tones, it's all there. But here is the real problem with this amp; the electronics. And I think it's a problem across the whole Flexwave series. My FW65 combo is actually my second one; the first one had problems with the effects within a couple days. Crate replaced it with a brand new amp. Within a couple moths, the new one broke too because the flanger setting is stuck on and the reverb just comes on and shuts off when it wants to. I didn't bother to send it back and I lived with it (practice amp now). Now that I have this half stack and it's three weeks old, the amp will occasionally pop and the output will drop by about 50%. If you shut it off and wait a while, then turn it on, it's 100%. I've tried different guitars and cables with the same result. I contacted Crate about the issue and urged them to check these online reviews and they conceded that they have noticed an unacceptably high number of people having similar electronic problems with the Flexwave series amps and that they are currently working to determine what the problem is. Their customer service is very responsive, helpful, and friendly, and my gut tells me that Crate will somehow make good on any defective products. But, realistically, if you need to know your amp is going to perform because you're getting paid, you may want to look elsewhere until Crate gets these problems fixed. This is an unbelievable deal on a reasonably powerful half stack and you'll be glad you bought it if you like the tones.......as long as it stays working.

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• Very reliable amp.

  

  As reviewed by Bill on 4/26/2011

  I bought this amp 4 years back, 2007. I must say this has been one of the most durable amps i've ever used. I'm normally very careful with my gear but, with moving it and using it accidents happen. Its been dropped out of trucks, thrown into vans, pushed down the street, & even taken a few tumbles off of the the stage. Living in Chicago the weather is always to an extremes, playing in garages and transporting this thing in all kinds of weather... well a lesser amp would have quit. The tolex will show the wear but, you'd never know by listening to it. The sound on this amp is very versatile. I've played in: Hardcore/Screaming bands, Grunge, Punk, Horror Rock, Pop-Punk, & even Blues Rock. My favorite kinds of tones to get from this amp is thick distortion rich in bottom end. It does quite well a light distortion too. I won't say you can nail someone's famous sound but, it does just fine in doing its own thing. All the EQ-ing on this amp is responsive and not "just there". The Cleans are completely clean & sparkly unless you crank the clean channel to 8-10 than it starts to break up. The Overdrive channel is has sperate a Separate EQ than the clean channel. The Lead channel can cut through just about any mix with the right mount of tweaking & with three knobs you won't be bussy long. The Effects are where i'd look else where. The Reverb is ok, it gets the job done. The Chorus, Flanger & Phaser are lacking. IMO these effects are good enough to work if you need just an occasional sound effect of something in a small section of a song. If your heavy on using effects than you might want to just buy the pedals or a good multi fx. I don't really use effects too often, I actually removed the switch from the Crate Footswtich. The Built in tuner works well if you know how to use it. Best to hit the 12th fret and get the natural harmonic than use the tuner. For some reason it doesn't do to good tuning the lower frequencies so I use natural harmonics to get around that. The Cab has very nice caster and handles on them. Never had to replace anything. The speakers have a very nice low end response. It begs for the bass to be around 1 or 3 o'clock and the mids to be brought to 4 o'clock. This might not be the loudest 100Watt amp on the market but, in the price range & for a solid state its got one of the best sounds. If you really need the extra sound but the extra cab.

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